Fairy Tales
by Sorrel
Summary: Because sometimes, the story just doesn't do the heroine justice. Faith tells a story. You find your happiness where you can make it, and sometimes it can be pretty damn sweet. Buffy-Faith, AU post"Chosen."
1. Once Upon a Time

**Chapter One: Once Upon a Time.**

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"Once upon a time," she began, "in a land far, far away, there was a girl."

"Oh, come on. You're actually telling me a fairy tale? I'm eighteen, not eight."

"Shh. This is a different sort of fairy tale. Just listen, would you?"

"Oh, alright," she muttered, and the other one took a breath and began her story again.

"Now, every girl ever born has the potential to become somebody. But this girl was different. Destiny had marked her at birth, and though she never realized it, she would eventually become the greatest warrior maiden this world had ever seen.

"She lived her life out happily, and was known and loved by many people. But one day a man came to speak to her, and though at first she didn't believe what he was telling her, he handed her a weapon and showed her, by trial of battle, that she was indeed the warrior that he claimed she was. And though she was afraid, for her life and the lives of those she loved, she took the mantle of destiny and began to fight.

"But soon her secret fight became impossible to conceal, and the resulting storm of fire forced her to leave her home and move. She was determined that she would never lose the life that she had built for herself, and so she left her battle at her old home and did her best to be just a girl.

"She didn't realize it, but her new home rested over the mouth of hell. Soon she was called upon to fight again, and she realized that she would never be able to lay down her weapons and rest, because the battle would always find her. But by this point she had friends- a man with the knowledge of the ages in his eyes, a girl filled with magic that she would one day learn, and a boy with dark hair and a ready smile.

"And she had a man.

"He was one that she hunted, and yet he hunted at her side. He drifted in and out of her life like the wind, and he was there for the final battle with the oldest and darkest of the vampires. And he was there when she died, though it was the dark-haired boy who brought her back to life.

"And when she came back after a summer in her old home the fires between the burned hotter and hotter, until they finally gave into their desires. And when they did he returned to the creature he was, a creature of evil.

"These were dark times for the girl, for she had to battle a creature determined to destroy her even as he wore her beloved's face. And when the end came, almost the end of the world, she destroyed him, even though she wanted nothing more out of life than to hold him close to her and never let him go.

"She went on to have many more battles, and many more friends and enemies and dreams, but part of her was destroyed by the sword that pierced her beloved's heart. And with every breath she took, every blow she exchanged, a little bit more of her bled away.

"Since centuries before there had been an order of monks who devoted their lives to protecting a magical thing, a Key. And to keep it safe even when the Beast was hunting it, they placed the Key in the care of the girl, in the form of the girl's sister.

"And then the girl found something that she'd thought she'd lost, a piece of herself that had been bleeding away since she'd killed her one true love. She found a sister, someone she could love with all her heart, and it was that love that set her free."

Stunned silence reigned for a minute, and then it was broken by a slow clapping from the doorway. Dawn looked up to see Buffy standing there, smiling at them both.

"Faith," she said. "You didn't talk about yourself at all in that little tale. You sure you're not running a fever?"

"Just fine, B," she said with a matching grin. "Five by five. And your own fine self?"

"Five by five," Buffy returned. "Just got back from patrol."

"Get anything?"

"Few vamps," Buffy said, and their smiles deepened, a shared secret hovering there. Dawn made a disgusted noise in the back of her throat, breaking the silent communication.

"Can't you two control yourselves at all? I'm only here for another day, and then I'm going off to college and you're taking off for parts unknown. You can make googly eyes at each other there, you know."

Faith stood fluidly and sauntered over to Buffy's side, draping an arm around the smaller Slayer's waist. "But it's much more fun to make them here, Dawnie, where you can make disgusted faces at us."

Dawn stuck her tongue out at them both, and started walking out the door, her nose in the air. "I'm going to go pack."

They both waited until she was upstairs before bursting into laughter and collapsing on the couch. "That's still fun," Buffy commented when she got her breath back. "And we've been doing it for the entire two weeks she's been here."

"Yeah, well, she's leaving tomorrow, and we'll have to disgust the locals of... where's our tickets for, anyway?"

"I dunno," Buffy said. "Giles gave them to me today, but I was too depressed about Christmas vacation being over to think about where we were being shipped off to next. I'll look at them in a minute."

Faith scooted closer to her and wrapped an arm around her shoulder, pulling Buffy's slender body tight against her own. "It doesn't matter where we're going," she said, and Buffy smiled up at her before snuggling her head down into Faith's shoulder and closing her eyes.

"I know."


	2. In a Land Far, Far Away

**Chapter Two: In a Land Far, Far Away.**

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"I like being in a country where no one can understand our language," Faith said as they strolled down the street. "It's liberating."

Buffy snorted. "You don't need any liberating, Faith. Trust me. You're liberated quite enough as it is."

"I resent that," Faith said, and turned her head to stick her tongue out at Buffy. "There is always more liberating to be done. For example: have you ever been kissed on the streets of some exotic foreign country?"

"Why, I don't believe I have," Buffy lied, without any qualms whatsoever. "Clearly, I need to be liberated."

Faith grinned at her and stopped walking, pulling on Buffy's arm until the other girl was turned to face her. Then she pulled her closer, and laid her lips carefully against Buffy's.

A few minutes later, Buffy pulled away, breathing a little harder, and smiled gently into Faith's eyes. "You were right. There is always more liberating to be done."

Faith laughed and started to walk backwards, holding Buffy's hands in hers. "And here we are, two young women alone together in one of the most beautiful cities in the world. The slaying is all done, and the night is still young. Just imagine how much liberating we can fit into this evening alone."

Buffy followed her, her eyes laughing though her mouth was pressed determinedly into a straight line. "For example?"

"Well, there's a few clubs around here that are worth seeing," Faith said. "Or so I heard."

"Faith, we're in a country where one person in a baker's dozen can speak even a few words on English. And yet, somehow, you've managed to hear about all the good clubs." She paused to consider this. "I find myself oddly unsurprised."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Faith said. "So? You up for a little clubbing?"

"Not tonight, I don't think," Buffy said. "Head hurts from where I got tossed into the side of the building by that last vamp. Not really up to the so-loud-you-can't-hear-yourself-think music."

"Maybe another night," Faith said, understanding. "There is, however, something else that we can do on this fine night."

"And what would that be?" Buffy asked archly. Faith grinned at her.

"Dancing in the moonlight," Faith said, and pulled her close again, spinning her around as if she weighed little more than the cool night air around them. "I think I saw it on a list of 100 Most Romantic Things to Do with Your Lover in some magazine or other a few weeks back."

"There's no music," Buffy protested, but her body was already falling into a slow, sweet rhythm, guided by Faith's.

"We don't need any music," Faith whispered. "It's right there, if you listen hard enough."

Buffy ducked her head into the curve of Faith's shoulder and smiled against the skin of her neck. "I can hear it," she said.

"What does it sound like?" Faith asked her, and Buffy lifted her head to stare straight into her eyes.

"It sounds like love," she said, and Faith smiled at her, sweetly, nothing at all like her usual smirk, and said nothing. They danced together in the moonlight, not realizing that people watched them from darkened windows, and they wouldn't have cared if they did know. They danced together, and the world fell away.

It felt like love.


	3. There Was a Girl

**Chapter Three: There Was a Girl.

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One fist whistled past her ear, and she laughed as she grabbed his arm and used it to flip him flat onto his back. The stake was magically in her hand, produced from God knows where, and she staked the vampire in one smooth motion, already looking away to the other two that were hesitating in the mouth of the alley. Faith could see their tiny little minds debating- run, or maybe get free dinner? She could see them decide to try for dinner, and grinned to herself from her hiding place.

Vamps were all the same. Fucking stupid to the bone.

It was over in less than a minute, of course. London was filled with very young and very stupid fledges, and these were prime examples of their breed. Clumsy punches, thinking that speed and strength would give them the advantage, and too slow to realize that Buffy was stronger and faster and had years of training to boot. Of course, they also thought that they had the advantage of numbers, but Faith saw no need to interfere in Buffy's victory.

Dust scattered around her, and Faith stepped out of the shadow she'd been standing in, clapping slowly. Buffy's face darkened for a moment, and Faith wondered what memory she'd accidentally touched. Her ironic grin softened, and she reached out to touch Buffy's cheek gently, hesitantly. Buffy smiled at her, shaking off whatever spectre of her past that haunted her tonight, and closed her hand over Faith's, pulling her close. Faith wrapped her arms around the slightly shorter woman, and just… held her close.

"I love you, you know," she said, almost conversationally, and she felt Buffy's sigh feather against the sensitive skin of her throat.

"I know you do. I'm fine. Just… So many people gone. So many people lost to the grand Slayer's purpose of saving the world."

Ah.

"Spike came back," Faith pointed out. "I know you know because Giles told you weeks ago, and you called LA a few days back."

"Can't stop thinking about him," Buffy admitted. When she felt Faith tense she ran a soothing hand down her spine, letting her hand linger and shed heat into the small of her back. "Not like that. Whatever it was that we had, it's gone now. Or at least changed. I'm not in love with him anymore, and though he didn't say anything about it, I think that he's not in love with me either. Dying and coming back really tends to change your perspective on things."

"Wouldn't know," Faith said, trying for levity, "so I guess I'll have to take your word for it."

Buffy pulled back far enough to look her in the eye, and smiled her sweet smile, the one that she reserved for Faith and particularly tender moments with Dawn. "I think I forgot to mention," she said deliberately, "that I love you too."

"Oh, well then," Faith said, and smiled back at her. "That's acceptable, I guess."

"You _guess?_" Buffy demanded with mock outrage, and Faith was quick enough to grab her hands before they could go for her sides in a tickle attack. Faith grinned at her, a wide smile that was hers alone, and said, "Well, there was that whole debacle with the ice cream last night. I had to rethink things for a moment after that."

"Rethink things?" Buffy growled, and Faith was glad that she'd already grabbed her hands because she was pretty sure that Buffy would have punched her.

"Only for a moment," she said hastily. "Honest."

Buffy snorted, but she relaxed. "You haven't had an honest moment since you were _born,_ Faith," she said, and Faith's eyes widened in mock outrage before she took her hand-holding advantage and dove for Buffy's ribs.

Buffy shrieked with laughter, and Faith grinned at her for a split second before Buffy tackled her, knocking her straight down onto the hard cement of the alley ground. She let out an "oof" as the wind was momentarily knocked out of her, and Buffy promptly turned the tables and started to tickle her.

The war was on, and they rolled across the dirty ground as they each struggled for advantage over the other. Buffy eventually ended up on top, just like Faith had been aiming for her to do, and she pinned Faith's hands over her head with a triumphant smirk.

"Oh, well then," Faith said casually. "Look at this. I'm at your mercy. What are you going to do about it?"

"Oh, I've got a few ideas," Buffy said. Faith cocked a challenging eyebrow.

"Oh yeah? Like what?"

"I'm gonna eat you alive, for starters," she said, and stopped Faith's burgeoning smirk cold when she simultaneously started kissing down her neck and sliding a cold hand up under Faith's shirt.

"Sounds like a good idea to me," a different voice, male, said from the mouth of the alley, and the two of them rolled instantly to their feet. A vampire was standing there, licking his lips with anticipation for a double delight snack, and Faith was so pissed off that he'd interrupted her incipient sex that she started towards him, intending to kill him slowly.

Buffy breezed past her and launched herself at the vamp, landing a flurry of angry blows that was impressive, even for her. Faith stood back and watched, arms crossed over her chest, and started to grin when she heard what Buffy was growling as she beat the shit out of the interloper.

"You. Interrupted. Sex. Now you're going to fucking die."

Buffy staked the bastard, and Faith fell instantly for the satisfied smirk that was on her lips when she brushed her hands together to free them of the remaining dust. Her stake went back to wherever she kept it, but Faith wasn't paying a lot of attention because Buffy was stalking towards her, and the look on her face said that they were going home now, and Faith wasn't gonna be able to move for a week when they were done.

Faith couldn't wait.


End file.
